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7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Farming and forestry are significant for the control of diffuse water pollution from land use. As first because they are collectively the largest land uses in Scotland and secondly because their activities have the potential to cause serious harm to the water environment.
As in other sectors, productive activities must be subject to rules to prevent environmentally adverse effects. What is acceptable in one period may not be so in the next. The implementation of the Water Framework Directive calls for changes which are taking place across Europe.
This consultation envisages that a package of measures is required in order to achieve the environmental objectives of the Executive and the WFD. To achieve this, change is needed in some rural land use practices in Scotland to bring about improvements in the protection of the water environment.
In some cases improvements are already being made through good practice, developed and promoted by farmers, such as the PEPFAA Code and the 4 Point Plan.
Technical change, bringing the capability to target fertiliser applications more precisely, will help, while the recent increases in fertiliser prices will require tighter controls to achieve cost savings. Decoupling under CAP Reform has reduced the incentives to produce more than is environmentally sustainable.
We see our strategy as developing these changes on two fronts, regulatory and supportive.
The regulatory regime in our view needs to be tightened, as there is currently no legislation directly relating to combating diffuse pollution, yet diffuse pollution is a major threat to the achievement of good water quality. We have set out our proposals for a series of GBRs as a "light touch" form of regulation. This will give the regulatory bodies, SEERAD and SEPA in different circumstances, greater powers to require changes to be made and on occasion to take enforcement action.
The main features of the regulatory regime we envisage are:
Nationwide - General authorisation - National GBRs for land use activities as a standard
Site specific - The application of targeted GBRs and registration where specific problems are identified in catchments at risk.
The supportive measures we propose to develop are:
More targeted supportive measures through Land Management Contracts;
Advice on what can be achieved through voluntary action; and
The review of guidance relating to protection of the water environment and better communications with those to whom it applies.
CAP Reform has environmental protection as one of its goals. We propose to use the new arrangements of Land Management Contracts as a means of helping bring about better water quality. This should involve in 2007 expanding the water-related measures in the LMC Menu Scheme. There will also be the option of competitive, targeted measures under tier 3. Such measures will require to be carefully designed and promoted effectively to ensure that they will achieve the desired effect. A suitable package of supportive measures will help reduce the need to use legislation.
We consider that this approach encompasses our need to ensure there is a programme of measures in place to meet the requirements for the control of diffuse pollution under the Water Framework Directive. At the same time the Executive would be maintaining a high degree of support for environmental improvement through cross-compliance and voluntary measures.
Questions
14. How might the proposed approach best be developed?
15. Are there any further factors we need to take into account?
16. How should the Executive work most effectively with the agricultural sector?
17. Can a similar approach be used for forestry as for agriculture?
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